Toad Top 10, 2007: 11-15
11. Shout Out Louds – Our Ill Wills
The first time I heard this album I thought it was mediocre. Mediocre! The next time I thought it was decent. Now I think it’s an 80s indie pop masterpiece. One of the most enjoyable records I’ve heard for ages. If you’re having a party with even slightly discerning guests put this on, loud!
Shout Out Louds – Tonight I Have to Leave It
12. White Rabbits – Fort Nightly
Piano driven rock ‘n’ roll brilliance. You know how if you really love something you sit there drumming on the table with your fingers and bobbing your head like a muppet? Well this is that album for me. Great, great stuff.
White Rabbits – Kid on My Shoulders
13. Frightened Rabbit – The Greys
This album has the dubious honour of being the first ever freebie I was ever sent to review. I felt so important and so happy. And what a fine album it is too: discordant indie with howling, tuneless vocals and scrappy, jumpy guitar. Scottish indie is alive and well, and it’s because of groups like these lads.
Frightened Rabbit – Music Now
14. Loch Lomond – Paper the Walls
Breathtakingly beautiful chamber folk from that cauldron of indie brilliance: Portland, Oregon. Sufjan Stevens meets the Decemberists and, this year, outdoes them both.
Loch Lomond – Song in ¾
15. Alela Diane – The Pirate’s Gospel
Truly a work of hushed folk wonder. I only found out about her because she’s on the same label as the Shaky Hands. What fine noses those people at Holocene Music have. Honestly, you could not find a finer album of bluesly, folky, old-time gorgeousness.
Alela Diane – Pieces of String
Alela Diane is truly special; we’ve ben pushing her for about a year & I don’t think I’ve heard anyone,/i> who betters her in that field.
I’m glad to see that Alela Diane is here. I’ve only just discovered her in the last few days (after Rough Trade ranked the Pirate’s Gospel as the Number One record of the year). So beautiful. I’ll have to check out Shaky Hands, but another of her labelmates, Mariee Sioux, has absolutely captivated me. She has a song called Wizard Flurry Home that kicks off her new record, The Faces in the Rocks, and it is just magnificent.
Glad you included that Shout Out Louds track. It is addictive, isn’t it? It’s been stuck in my head for weeks. And you’re right that there’s scarcely a bad track on the whole album.
I think I was about to explore Mariee Sioux’s stuff at the time I got into Alela Diane actually, but I got distracted and wandered off to do something else. I take it it’s well worth revisiting.
Every time I look at this list I think maybe I should have put it in a different order. I honestly rattled it off pretty quickly, but then, at other times I think I was pretty much right. I guess the order just doesn’t matter too much really, just that they’re there.
Mariee Sioux is absolutely worth checking out. Check your email.
Marie Sioux = yes. Try also Chistine Fellows (new LP is stunning) & Anni Rossi.
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